Difficulty: Beginner Time to set up: 10 minutes Time per carousel: 5 minutes

Generate LinkedIn carousel content slide-by-slide in under 5 minutes using a Claude Code skill.

This approach is inspired by the aimaker.substack.com carousel workflow.

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Why Carousels Work

LinkedIn carousels get 1.5 to 2x the engagement of text posts. The format forces you to break ideas into digestible pieces, which makes complex topics accessible. And because people swipe through them, you get more time-on-post, which the algorithm rewards.

The problem is that making carousels takes forever. You have to outline the slides, write the copy, design each slide, and make sure the flow works. Most marketers give up after two or three carousels because the ROI per hour feels low.

Claude Code fixes the bottleneck. It generates the slide-by-slide content in under 5 minutes. You drop the text into Canva (or whatever design tool you use), pick a template, and publish. The content creation goes from 45 minutes to 5 minutes. The design step stays the same, but that is the easy part.

What You Will Build

A carousel skill that generates structured slide content for any topic. Each slide has a headline, body text, and design notes. The output is ready to paste into your design tool.

Tools used: Claude Code (terminal), CLAUDE.md, skill files, Canva (or any design tool)

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Step 1: Create the Carousel Skill File

Create skills/carousel.md:

# LinkedIn Carousel Generator

## Purpose
Generate slide-by-slide content for LinkedIn carousels.
Output should be ready to paste into a design tool.

## Carousel Structure

Every carousel follows this arc:

### Slide 1: Hook Slide
- Bold statement, surprising stat, or provocative question
- This is the thumbnail people see in their feed
- Max 8 words for the headline
- Optional: 1-line subtext (max 12 words)
- Must create enough curiosity to make someone start swiping

### Slides 2-3: Context Slides
- Set up the problem or situation
- Why should the reader care?
- One idea per slide
- Headline: max 6 words
- Body text: max 25 words per slide

### Slides 4-8: Content Slides
- The meat of the carousel
- Each slide delivers one point, tip, or step
- Use numbered slides if it is a list or process
- Headline: max 6 words (bold, actionable)
- Body text: max 30 words per slide
- If possible, include a specific example or data point

### Slide 9 (or second-to-last): Summary Slide
- Recap the key takeaway in one sentence
- Or list the main points as bullet points
- Headline: "Key Takeaway" or "The Bottom Line" or similar
- Body: max 30 words

### Slide 10 (last): CTA Slide
- Tell people what to do next
- Options: Follow for more, Save this post, Comment your take,
  Visit [URL], Download [resource]
- Include your name/handle
- Keep it clean and simple

## Formatting Rules
- Max 10-12 slides total (8-10 is the sweet spot)
- One idea per slide, no exceptions
- Text must be readable at mobile size (keep it short)
- Use sentence case for headlines, not ALL CAPS
- No paragraphs on slides. Bullet points or single sentences only.
- Leave visual breathing room (design note: less text = better design)

## Output Format
Present each slide as:

**Slide [number]: [Slide type]**
Headline: [headline text]
Body: [body text]
Design note: [any visual suggestion: icon, chart, color emphasis, etc.]

## Topic Angles That Work for Carousels
- "X things I learned about [topic]"
- "How to [achieve result] in [number] steps"
- "The [topic] framework I use every day"
- "[Common belief] vs [reality]"
- "Beginner's guide to [topic]"
- "[Number] mistakes killing your [metric]"

Step 2: Add to Your CLAUDE.md

## Skill Files
- `skills/carousel.md` — LinkedIn carousel content generator

Step 3: Generate Your First Carousel

Open Claude Code and give it a topic:

Create a LinkedIn carousel about AI Engine Optimization (AEO) —
what it is and why marketers need to care about it now.

Here is an example of what the output looks like:

Slide 1: Hook Headline: Google is not the only search engine anymore Body: AI is answering your customers' questions. Are you showing up? Design note: Dark background, bold white text, small AI search icons

Slide 2: Context Headline: Meet AI search engines Body: ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews now answer millions of queries daily. They pull from websites, but not all websites. Design note: Logos of ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google

Slide 3: The Problem Headline: Most companies are invisible Body: Only 12% of SaaS sites have schema markup. 8% have FAQ sections. AI search engines skip the rest. Design note: Stat callout with large "12%" visual

Slide 4: What is AEO Headline: AEO stands for AI Engine Optimization Body: It is SEO's younger sibling. Instead of optimizing for Google's crawler, you optimize for AI systems that read and summarize your content. Design note: Simple comparison visual: SEO vs AEO

Slide 5: Step 1 Headline: Add schema markup Body: JSON-LD structured data tells AI engines exactly what your page is about. Organization, Product, FAQ, and HowTo schemas are the priority. Design note: Code snippet visual or checklist icon

Slide 6: Step 2 Headline: Create FAQ content Body: AI engines love question-and-answer formats. Add FAQ sections to your top 5 pages with real questions your customers ask. Design note: Q&A format visual

Slide 7: Step 3 Headline: Write definitional content Body: "What is [your product category]?" pages get cited constantly by AI. If you do not have one, create it this week. Design note: Example page mockup

Slide 8: Step 4 Headline: Check your robots.txt Body: Some companies accidentally block AI crawlers. Check that GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and Amazonbot are allowed access. Design note: Terminal/code visual

Slide 9: Summary Headline: The AEO checklist Body: 1. Schema markup 2. FAQ sections 3. Definitional pages 4. AI crawler access. Four fixes. One afternoon. Visible to AI by next week. Design note: Clean numbered list, checkmark icons

Slide 10: CTA Headline: Want an AI visibility audit? Body: Follow me for more AI marketing tactics. Drop a comment and I will run a free visibility check on your site. Design note: Clean slide with profile photo and handle

Step 4: Customize Slide Rules

After generating a few carousels, you will develop preferences. Update your skill file:

## My Carousel Preferences
- I prefer 8 slides (not 12)
- Always include one stat slide with a large number visual
- My brand colors: [hex codes]
- Font style preference: [clean sans-serif / bold modern / etc.]
- Always end with "Follow for more" not "Visit my website"
- Include my handle: @[yourhandle] on the last slide

Step 5: Drop Into Canva

The output from Claude Code is content, not design. Here is the workflow for turning it into a finished carousel:

1. Open Canva and search for "LinkedIn carousel" templates
2. Pick a template that matches your brand
3. Copy each slide's headline and body text into the corresponding template slide
4. Adjust based on the design notes (add icons, change colors, resize text)
5. Export as PDF
6. Upload to LinkedIn as a document post
7. Write a caption that teases the carousel content

For the caption, you can ask Claude Code:

Write a LinkedIn caption for a carousel about AEO.
The carousel covers what AEO is and 4 steps to get started.
Make the caption create curiosity to swipe through.

Prompt Variations

Here are more prompts to generate different carousel types:

Create a carousel: "7 AI marketing tools I use every week"
Make each slide feature one tool with what it does and why I use it.

Create a carousel breaking down our case study:
[paste case study summary]
Focus on the before/after results and what we did differently.

Create a carousel: "Content repurposing framework"
Show how one blog post becomes 15+ pieces of content.
Make it visual — describe a flow diagram across slides.

Create a "myth vs reality" carousel about AI in marketing.
5 myths, each with a slide for the myth and a slide for the reality.

Turn this LinkedIn post into a carousel format. Expand each point
into its own slide with more detail.

[paste your LinkedIn post]

Batch Generation

You can generate multiple carousels in one session:

Generate carousel outlines for these 3 topics:
1. Why your website is invisible to AI (and how to fix it)
2. The content repurposing framework that saves 10 hours per week
3. 5 CLAUDE.md tips for marketers

Give me the full slide-by-slide content for each.

This gives you a few weeks of carousel content in one sitting.

Common Carousel Mistakes to Avoid

Your skill file should help you avoid these, but worth knowing:

• Too much text per slide. If you cannot read it at phone size, cut it in half.
• No hook on slide 1. If the thumbnail is boring, nobody swipes. The hook slide is everything.
• Slides that do not stand alone. Each slide should make sense even if someone screenshots just that one.
• No CTA. Always tell people what to do on the last slide. Follow, comment, save, visit.
• Too many slides. 8 to 10 is the sweet spot. Past 12, people drop off.

File Structure

marketing-system/
  CLAUDE.md
  skills/
    carousel.md
  carousels/
    2026-02-27-aeo-carousel.md
    2026-02-27-repurposing-carousel.md

Save your generated carousels so you can reference them later or update and republish.

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Tools used in this playbook: Claude Code CLI, CLAUDE.md, skill files, Canva (design), LinkedIn (publishing)